likewise employs this principle complaisantly both in his proof of the validity of simple ideas and of the existence of God. But the causal idea on the other hand belongs to the class of relative ideas, which is therefore a subjective construction albeit on the basis of sense-perception. Locke is rather ambiguous at this point (as also on the idea of substance). The profound problems involved in these ideas were not discovered until Locke's successors (Berkeley and Hume) came upon them.
c. In the philosophy of law, Locke (in the Essay on Government (1689) makes a sharp distinction between political and patriarchal authority. Political authority consists in the authority to prescribe laws, to enforce the laws which are prescribed, and to protect society against foreign enemies. Such authority can be established only by unconstrained agreement, which may however be tacitly concluded. It is the duty of the state to secure liberty, which, in a state of nature, is constantly in danger of being lost. If the government proves unfaithful to its trust, the people have the right to overthrow it.
In his philosophy of religion (The Reasonableness of Christianity as Delivered in the Scriptures, 1695) Locke conceives revealed religion as a more developed form of natural religion. Whether or not anything is revelation must be decided by reason. Revelation is necessary, however, on account of the fact that man has not used his reason properly and has consequently fallen into superstition. An elaborate system of doctrine is unnecessary. The illiterate and the poor, whose lives are spent in bitter toil, readily understand the example and teachings of Christ. The English Free-thinkers (the so-called Deists) developed Locke's philosophy of religion more fully in the direction of a more pronounced rationalism.
